In recognition of National Pro Bono Week (October 23–29), the UT Law Pro Bono Program celebrates the pro bono efforts of members of the Law School community. Recently the Pro Bono Program spoke with Professor Jordan Steiker about his work representing clients in capital cases.
Lisa Blatt and David Frederick are good friends from their days at UT Law who still cross paths every once in a while. That in itself is not unusual. Every Law School graduate has had the experience of running into fellow alumni in court, in social settings, or even in the grocery store. For Blatt and Frederick, however, the venue is somewhat more august—before the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. The two have faced off against each other there three times, including twice in the recent 2010–2011 session.
Usually the courts of last resort in federal cases, the Federal Courts of Appeals are widely misunderstood by the public, as is appellate practice generally. The American Bar Association is working to change that through a new project, a blog called “Media Alerts on Federal Courts of Appeals.” The ABA hopes to increase awareness and understanding of the Federal Courts of Appeals by expanding access to the work of those Courts. The University of Texas School of Law plays an important role in this project: students report on decisions issued by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Students at Austin’s Webb Middle School set up their own dispute resolution forum with the help of Law School students and professors.
The University of Texas School of Law was proud to host the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules for their meeting in early April. The Committee is tasked with considering and recommending amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which govern procedure, practice, and evidence in the federal courts.
Six students at the University of Texas School of Law have been selected as the 2011 Whitehurst Public Interest Summer Fellows. The fellowships are made possible by a gift from Bill, ’70, and Stephanie Whitehurst, and are administered by the Law School’s William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law. The fellowships are awarded annually to outstanding students between their second and third years of law school to support their summer public interest work.
The University of Texas School of Law’s Justice Corps program recently awarded the Julius Glickman Fellowship in Public Interest Law to third-year student Claire Rodriguez. The two-year fellowship provides $45,000 per year for full-time legal work on a project sponsored by an existing public-interest legal organization and supervised by a licensed attorney.
The William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, and the legacy of its namesake, who passed away last year. Richard Mithoff, ’71, looks back on the events that shaped the man.